“Yes, sir,” replied Alex as Clark disappeared back down the hall. It never failed. Every time he started talking to Kadyn, Clark managed to show up and interrupt the conversation. In fact, it had just happened the Friday before when Alex was talking to Kadyn in the parking lot. Clark had appeared, seemingly from nowhere, and immediately steered the subject back to work. It made Alex wonder if the old man had an interest in Kadyn.
Knowing that Clark didn’t like to wait, Alex walked over and asked the well-pierced barista for a regular coffee, cream only. Kadyn, her caramel mocha now in hand, walked over to where Alex was standing. “Whoa, sounds serious.”
Alex was startled out of his thoughts at the sound of her voice. She was so close that he could smell her perfume and see the varying shades of blue in her eyes. “Ummm, hard to say.” He laughed nervously. “It may be. Then again, Dr. Clark thinks everything is serious.”
Alex couldn’t think of anything else to say and turned red at the awkward silence.
“Hey,” Kadyn said, “it could turn out to be something juicy, so why don’t we talk about it over lunch today?”
“What?” he asked. “You would… I mean, yeah… that would work.”
“Great.” She smiled. There was another awkward pause. “See you back here around noon then?”
“Sure, that—”
“Morrow!” Clark was standing at the door once again and didn’t appear pleased. “Sorry, but I need you now.”
Kadyn mouthed silently that she would see him later and departed.
Alex paid the barista for his coffee and joined Clark, who was waiting outside in the hallway.
“You know I wouldn’t normally pull you away from such a cute girl,” said Clark, stroking his goatee as they walked. “But I need to get a final report sent to Washington regarding the Geneva event.”
Alex thought it odd that Clark had referred to Kadyn as a “cute girl.” Normally he was all business. Maybe he really did have a thing for her.
“Washington?” Alex asked.
“Yes,” Clark replied. Then he continued in a lower voice, “Apparently, this whole thing has grabbed everyone’s attention. You wouldn’t believe who I’ve been talking to.”
“Like who?”
“Maybe later. I can’t say anything right now.”
“Do we even know what it relates to?”
“Not yet. Let’s look over everything this morning so I can render our final report.”
The two reached a row of elevators. The presence of elevators in a one-story building often surprised visitors, until they learned the bulk of the facility was housed underground, far away from the hot Mojave sun.
After exiting at the bottom, Clark gave Alex some final instructions and disappeared down the hall to the right. Alex continued straight ahead through the cavernous operations center, walking past row after row of signal processing and recording equipment. That was the heart of the Deep Space Network’s listening post, the place where all sounds were processed and recorded.
Alex arrived at his office, set the coffee cup on his desk, and pushed the power button on his computer. While he was waiting, he turned on his iPod, popped in his earbuds, and found the Kings of Leon tracks he had downloaded the night before.
Several minutes later, the computer finished its security protocols, allowing Alex to pull up the previous month’s reports. He entered the date he was looking for and scrolled until he found the specific report Clark had asked him to focus on. It was called the Atmospheric Report, and it contained information on all sounds and signals within the four levels of the earth’s atmosphere, from the troposphere to the thermosphere. Clark had specifically asked Alex to review the sounds that had been generated in and around Geneva, Switzerland, and Prévessin, France, and once he had done that, he was supposed to look for any other anomalies in the audio data. Stetson said he didn’t expect anything beyond what they had already learned from the preliminary reports but still needed to tell Washington that everything had been checked.
Satisfied that he had the right date and was reviewing the right information, Alex turned up the sound on his iPod, settled back in his chair, and began to scroll. Despite the importance of the job at hand, he soon found his thoughts turning back to Kadyn. He was still in shock that she had asked him to meet her for lunch. But then a disturbing question arose: did she want to meet because she was interested in him, or because she was curious about what would make Clark come all the way down to the café? Alex hoped it was the former, but he was smart enough to know that the latter was also possible. Everyone seemed curious about the work they did in DRA, so it wouldn’t be surprising at all if Kadyn simply wanted to gossip.
Which led to another question: should he be telling her anything anyway? Kadyn was a part of the co-operative education program and probably wasn’t technically a NASA employee yet. Not to mention that Washington was involved. On the other hand, Clark hadn’t told him not to say anything, either.
Alex was near the end of the second page when he suddenly stopped and stared at the screen. What on earth is that? Figuring it must be a mistake, he double-clicked on the item. As he examined it again, his eyes widened. He could scarcely believe what he was reading.
He knew he had to get the information to Stetson right away, so he slid his cursor over to the right and selected print. The laser printer on his desk made a few death shrieks before finally depositing a single sheet of paper into the tray.
Alex yanked the earbuds out of his ears and threw them on the desk. He reached for the printed sheet so quickly that he knocked over his coffee. The creamy brown liquid streamed across the desktop, but he paid it no mind. The cleanup would have to wait because the information he had in his hand couldn’t.
After pausing for a brief second to make sure he had printed the right thing, Alex left his office and jogged back through the operations center. He almost ran over two of his co-workers, apologizing profusely each time. Upon reaching the other end of the room, he turned left and began to race down the hallway.
Seconds later, he burst into the office of Dr. Stetson Clark. “Sir, I think you need to take a look at this,” he said, huffing and out of breath. Without waiting for an answer, Alex handed Clark the printout.
“What’s this?” Clark took it from him and looked at it after lifting his glasses a bit.
“It’s from the night of the Geneva event. Look at the characteristics of the wave.”
Clark shook his head. “Yes, we know, Alex. We haven’t been able to identify it yet. I’ve already told Washington—”
“No, look at the location,” Alex said.
“This isn’t Geneva?”
“No, but it happened around the same time.”
“Where?”
Alex walked over and stood beside Clark, pointing at the top of the page.
“Wait a minute,” Clark said, his mouth turning into a concerned frown. “This is the Amazon River basin of Brazil. There must be a—”
“No, there is no mistake,” interrupted Alex, still huffing. “I checked it twice.”
“And it’s coming from the lowest portion of troposphere…” Clark removed his glasses dramatically and looked up at Alex. “That’s ground level.”
“Exactly. It’s the same sound as we picked up in Geneva, and it came just minutes later.” He paused in order for that to sink in. “Sir, that sound we picked up in Geneva…”
“Yes.” Clark looked back down at the paper.
“Sir, that sound we picked up in Geneva was answered.”